MARSHALL — The Marshall Public School district had a successful summer program turnout this year between enrichment activities and credit recovery. Southview hosted the summer programs, while the Area Learning Center campus ran a summer school session.

For the targeted services summer program at Southview, students in first to sixth grade attended two sessions between June and July.

“We had so much fun … Our theme was ‘Code in Motion,'” Parkside teacher and summer program faculty member Emily Carroll said at last week’s board meeting. “Just trying to bring in those coding vocabulary words and activities that would overall engage our students, which it worked to a T, so that worked out wonderful.”

The program had 169 students registered in the first session, June 10-27, and 98 students for the final session, July 8-25, along with the help of several district teachers.

“We had many veterans coming back. We had a few new faces, and they all do such a great job working together and building bonds, because these teachers don’t work at the same schools, and just making friendships,” Carroll said. “It’s evident to the kids, too, that our teachers want to be there, and then they are just respectful and responsible.”

A typical day in the program consisted of language arts, phonics, writing, math, social studies, science, social and emotional learning and recess.

The students got lessons in technology from a handful of visitors this summer.

“We had one of our very own staff from Parkside, Mr. (Brandon) Salfer. He came in with his wife (Angie Salfer) and his 3-D printer, and he showed us how to make things on the printer,” Carroll said. “Kids had many questions, that he answered every single one for. (He) talked about the practicality of it … Teachers gave a preview of it beforehand, so they had an understanding. But, it was a great opportunity for our kids to see how that works.”

Sam Jens, a part of the Lyon County 4-H Program, also came back this summer for another visit with the students. He brought along a mini robot, named Edison.

“Edison came almost every week, and every week they (students) would build up on their skill base of what they learned before, and they would code it in different ways,” Carroll said. “The kids really had to work together on some of these activities, but ultimately gained a new vocabulary and language base that they heard during technology time, during morning announcements in the classroom, that just really embraced it all … It was fun for them to have that opportunity.”

Another visitor was Luke Novosad, who brought in a handful of different technologies students could interact with, and further study how to code.

The activities continued on with the program borrowing Virtual Reality goggles from the SWWC Service Cooperative.

“They were just enamored … They explored things like the moon, aquariums. Kids were seeing animals that they’ve never seen before,” Carroll said. “They just had a lot of fun, exploring and talking, sharing what they’re seeing, listening to what their friends were seeing. It was great.”

The high school summer credit recovery program also saw success, with 94% of participating students earning credit back.

“It went very well. It went really smooth,” Marshall ALC principal Dan Hoffman said. “It was a great time, great use of our classrooms. The teachers that came over from the high school, they loved the environment. It was a good opportunity for those students to learn and get stuff done, and they did.”

Summer school was held over three weeks, June 9 to June 27.

There was an ending total of 78 students who attended and finished the session. 90 students were registered at the start, but there were 12 no-shows. All students were from Marshall, with the exception of eight from Minneota.

“73% of the people got at least one credit out of it, and that’s mostly what they were there for. That would have been taking two classes. We had a morning session and afternoon session, so they were in two classes for the day,” Hoffman said. “There were some, a small percentage, that actually got 1.5 and two or more credits.”

Hoffman noted there was also one student that got three credits completed, and was able to graduate at the end of the summer.

There were five students who did not get credit.

“We had five people that actually didn’t get credit. They either dropped out, stopped showing up, and just didn’t finish the program,” Hoffman said. “Everybody that went all the way through to the end, at least got some credit, either half a credit or a full credit .”

The first day of school for the Marshall School District is quickly approaching. The high school will report back to the classroom on Tuesday, with the middle school, ALC and elementary schools starting on Wednesday. Preschool and kindergarten begins on Sept. 8.